What Is YOUR Best New Year's Resolution

This is the time of year that many people decide to change themselves. Out with the old, and in with the new. And for so many, the change is about weight. This is the biggest time of year for people to purchase gym memberships, and start a diet.

Focus on Increasing the positive

Instead of looking back over the last year with a focus on bad and things you did wrong or didn't do, why not change your focus to increasing the positive things that you've done? People actually do what they want to do. When you use words like: "should, have to, must," the likelihood is that you will only continue for a short time.  When you recall positive things to increase you use words like: "I WANT to." Do you see the difference? One is a victim mentality, the other is empowering.

Starting a Diet or Exercise Plan for a New Year's Resolution

Of course, if you’ve read other posts on this site, you KNOW that I’m going to tell you NOT to start a diet, or begin any extreme course in exercise. Because dieting and exercise do not work to change your body in a permanent way, and actually add to the problem! They cause physical and emotional stress, which can cause more weight gain!

Changing Your Mindset 

Your mindset: the attitude you have about any subject can be positive, negative or neutral. It become a lense through which you see the world. It takes awareness to really consider what type of mindset you have and then amend it. That's the first step, and practicing saying things and focusing on the positive is the behavioral change. Listen to what your mind is saying to you. It's only words- and you can remove and replace those negative statements with positive ones. 

The Best New Year's Resolution To Practice

There is one gift that you can give yourself for the New Year: Acceptance. Change rarely comes from negativity and winning a battle. So many people are at war with their body. And as in actual war, the event is painful, and in most cases temporary. 

The only way to permanently defeat an enemy is to make him/her your friend.  Make peace with your body. That’s the same way that you can achieve any goal in your life. Changing your body cannot be achieved by forcing, calling yourself names, pushing through, or deprivation. But you can encourage yourself with self-compassion, and gentle forward motion.

How to Stop Stress Eating with Mindset

Over-eating is most often the result of mindlessly swallowing more food that your body wants – because you are multi-tasking, dealing with stress by eating comfort food, or suffering from actual stress in your life. You probably are not even enjoying the food!

For those of you who have for so long restricted certain foods, prevented yourself from eating to satiation, your body is stressed out and doing everything it can to hold onto weight rather than have you starve. And what starts you dieting in the first place?? - It's a negative mindset and attitude about your body.

So you can see the best New Year's resolution is to focus on the things you appreciate about yourself and your body. Stop saying bad things about yourself and substitute with a positive statement. Soon you'll change that mindset and clear out the negative connections that reside in your brain! This increases your self-esteem and make you feel better about yourself. 

Make this your Happiest New Year and enjoy your food nurturing yourself without guilt!